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Breaking: Christian Horner Reveals Desperate Plea to Sergio Perez Speaks Volumes as Ferrari and McLaren Close In
In light of the impending threat that Ferrari and McLaren offer to the reigning world champions, Christian Horner acknowledges that Red Bull needs Sergio Perez to find his best form again.
Perez’s team boss referred to the Monaco Grand Prix weekend as “brutal” because the Mexican driver qualified just 16th in the first round due to traffic issues, and he subsequently had a major crash on the opening lap of the race with Kevin Magnussen. That was one week after Perez had a challenging Imola, qualifying just eleventh and finishing eighth.
Max Verstappen’s lead in the global championship has shrunk to 31 points thanks to Charles Leclerc’s victory in Monaco, although Perez has fallen to fifth place in the Drivers’ Championship behind Lando Norris of McLaren and two Ferrari drivers.
Sergio Perez’s 2024 results so far
Grand Prix Started Finished
Bahrain 5th 2nd
Saudi Arabia 3rd. 2nd
Australia. 6th 5th
Japan. 2nd 2nd
China 2nd 3rd
Miami 4th 4th
Emilia Romagna 11th 8th
Monaco 16th DNF
Checo was really strong in his first six races. He was starting from the front row, placing second and third, and scoring a lot of points. “We just need to get him back into that position of confidence and not see a dip.”
At the conclusion of this year, Perez’s contract with Red Bull is up for renewal. Although it is still thought that the 34-year-old would stay on for at least one more season, it would be unfortunate for his prospects should he go through a protracted period of underwhelming play.
Asked if Perez’s recent results changed anything about the timeline for a decision on any new contract, Horner replied: “No, not really. I think that it’s more… we’ll make a decision in the fullness of time.”
The increasing challenge being posed to Red Bull’s F1 supremacy – and the impact that Leclerc’s win in Monaco could have on the remainder of the season – was a central topic of discussion on the latest edition of the Sky Sports F1 podcast.
The last three races – Miami (Norris, McLaren), Imola (Verstappen, Red Bull) and Monaco (Leclerc, Ferrari) – have been won by three different teams, the first time such a sequence has happened in F1 since September 2021.
Red Bull had won 26 of the 28 previous races before then.
And former F1 race strategist Bernie Collins told the podcast: “Eight races in, it’s a lot closer battle than we’ve had.
“Red Bull genuinely lost Monaco and in the last two races [before that] McLaren have been right there with them, with McLaren winning one and Red Bull winning one.
“It is going to be a much tighter fight. Red Bull don’t seem that confident going forward and that’s really exciting for us watching at home.
“A part of that parcel is the fact that Ferrari have two guys regularly very close together on track and regularly taking good points.
“Those types of things will stand them in stead for the rest of the year and that’s where Red Bull really need to start questioning things a little bit because the car on most tracks is still the fastest car, although I appreciate not around Monaco, and the vast majority of the year is ahead of us.
“If McLaren and Ferrari continue to improve then Red Bull are in trouble.”
Red Bull had won on F1’s previous three visits to Monaco but this year’s RB20’s car struggled over the famous street circuit’s bumps and kerbs.
The RB20 was not absolutely commanding in Miami and Imola either, and Collins says there have been recent “small signs” that Red Bull “are not as comfortable as they were” with a car which had won four of the season’s first five races and again threatened to run away with both championships.
“The big worry for Red Bull is they started the year with this very different-concept car to what we’d seen before, and we were all a bit surprised that they’d changed the car in any way given how strong the car had been,” she added.
“Now we’re starting to hear little things like ‘oh, we’ve not quite got the correlation right’ or ‘we’re not quite getting upgrades working as expected’. All these little things with a different-concept car are not guaranteed.”
